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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Master Bedroom Curtains—Adding Grommets

As always, I have so many projects I want to post about. I thought this week I would focus my posts on some of the window treatments that I bought, made, and did major reconstructive surgery on.

We’ll start today in our Master Bedroom.

Our master bedroom has two enormous windows that let in a TON of sunlight (that is when the sun actually shines here in the northwest!).

This picture is right after we bought the house and were just starting renovations and painting. This room needed a bunch of dry wall repair (after we took off all the shelving and other things that had been left attached to the walls), new window blinds, a new light fixture and a whole lot of paint. I will give you all the before and after details in another post—today we are just going to talk about the curtains.

First of all—I just want to tell you that I bought 12 different sets of curtains that were eventually returned because they were either the wrong color (they didn’t match with our bedding), or they were not room darkening enough (we were waking up when the sun came up at 4 or 5 in the morning!) before we finally settled on these:

Eclipse Samara Blackout Energy-Efficient Curtain from Walmart

My hubby and I are really happy with the quality and the price of these curtains ($9.77/panel!!!) However, I was not in love with the rod pocket look—as I wanted to open and close them on a daily basis, and rod pockets can be awkward to open an close often.

So I tried using curtain clips to hang them from the rod. I obviously hadn’t ironed them yet when these pictures were taken.

I just wasn’t in love with this option either. I had really wanted a curtain with grommets. So I decided to see about adding my own grommets.

I found these DIY grommets at Joanns:

But they were $12.99 for 1 pack for the size that I needed. And I needed 3 packs! That would make double the price of these curtains!!!

I was bummed and had resigned myself to the fact that I would just have to live with them as is—until I saw that in Walmart’s Fabric section—they had these black plasitcy looking grommets for $5.99!

I didn’t want the cheap black plastic looking grommets—but I knew that I could fix them with my favorite spray paint that is made for plastic!

I have used this exact spray paint for more projects than I can count. Here and here are just a couple of examples.

So the grommets come apart into two pieces—the front and the back. Here all the fronts and backs got a makeover.

Next I used the template that comes with the grommets, and carefully measured and traced out where I wanted the grommets to go.

Then I simply just cut around my tracing lines. Then I put the back grommet on the back of my fabric, and the front grommet on the front. And then I pressed the pieces together and they snapped into place. All my cut edges are neatly and securely encased inside of the grommets.

Then I just repeat those steps 24 more times until all of my panels were done!

Then I gave them all a good pressing and hung them up.

Now they open and close easily and they look amazing. And this spray paint is tough as nails. Its not going anywhere. We have been opening and closing them every day for months and I have yet to see any signs of wear.

AND thanks to the miracles and wonders of SPRAY PAINT--this little transformation only cost me and additional $18 for the grommets instead of $40!

21 comments:

My little kids also have a wide window in their bedrooms, and it allows for natural lighting during the morning as they play in their playpen. I think this would make for a nice window treatment, since it is much easier to do than other window curtain styles and it looks delightful. ;)

Love this post!! Thank you so much. I have been searching and searching for grommet room darkening curtains for months and have run into the same problem with the colors or texture not matching - OR the curtains cost $50 a panel! You made the instructions so easy that I think even I can do it -- I'm not real crafty :) Thank you.

I have always loved the look of panels with grommets, but it wasn't until I started using them that I realized how EASY it is to slide them back and forth. Thankfully, I found your blog post before I went on a shopping spree for new curtains. I modified all the panels in our house from rod pockets to grommets and I LOVE THEM!! Thanks!

Wow! That was an ingenious way to improve your curtains, Sharon! It certainly looks like one of those expensive curtains you see at a fancy restaurant. Curtains help a homeowner improve privacy and regulate the amount of exterior light to penetrate their room. Thanks for sharing this project of yours, and I hope you make more ingenious solutions in the future.

What a clever idea to spray paint the grommets! My sister in law has been complaining about the decor of her master bedroom for a while and I'd imagine doing something similar with her drapes would change the space immensely! If she knew how inexpensive it could be to do, I'm sure she would be very interested! http://www.sylvansdrapesandblinds.com/drapery.nxg

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